


12 members

by Theweirdslingshot



Category: Glee
Genre: Curses, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Ghosts, I literally didn't know what to tag in the relationships tag, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Multi, Other, Racism, They are ghosts and the kids sort of fool around with everyone, every 5th year someone dies at the school, run over by a car, though no one does anything with Mr. Schue because ew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27689255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theweirdslingshot/pseuds/Theweirdslingshot
Summary: When Matt tragically dies at his football game, he is surprised to find himself waking up in the school's old choir room.
Relationships: New Directions & Will Schuester, New Directions/New Directions
Kudos: 10





	12 members

**Author's Note:**

> I debated if I was gonna rate this T or M, but after writing it and reading it through I think mature is the best rating. A big trigger warning: Everyone talks about the way they died, and some deaths are more graphic and cruel than others. I have made sure to tag everything. Read with caution.

Matt remembers it clearly. He is about to catch the ball, when this very large boy tackles him to the ground. He has been tackled to the ground before, it's fine. It's a dangerous sport in that way, but you should be fine if you know how to play properly. Matt does know how to play properly, but this time... something is not right. More boys from the opposite team jump on him. He hears the crowd cheering and booing. Someone blows the whistle. His heard hurts. He can't move, too many people is on him. He tilts his head to the right and see one final boy jump onto the pile.

Then he doesn't remember anymore. 

All he knows right now is that he's not at the field anymore. He is in another room. Is it the hospital? No...

He is lying on the floor. Is this... a room in school? Suddenly, he hears voices.

  
_"Is he awake?"_   
_"Oh, poor dear."_   
_"Try touching him."_   
_"Has it gone five years already?"_

The last line made Matt react. _What?_  
He slowly sits up. In front of him stands eleven kids his age and an adult man. They look to be worried.

"Where am I?" Matt asks.

The adult man steps forward and bents down. "Matt, is it? You were really brave out there." He then reaches out his hand to help Matt stand up. It's a very cold hand.

"They hit you pretty hard." one of the boys says. 

"Where am I?" Matt asks once again.

"First, can you answer a question?" a girl who dresses like a catholic schoolgirl from the 1970s asks. "What year is it?"

"2010?"

Everyone suddenly bursts out in "aah" and "ooh"'s. Matt is confused. 

"I can't believe i've been waiting for 60 years." the adult man chuckles. 

Matt frowns. "Pardon?"

The man reaches out his hand again to shake Matt's. "My name is William Schuster, but you can call me Will or Mr. Schuester. Or Mr. Schue." He chuckles again. "In this very place back in 1950, I had a dream of starting a show choir. Sadly that dream was short lived. The construction of the school was not the best and... well, there was a storage room right above the choir room. It's where they kept all instruments. But, well... one day the floor broke, just as I was standing under it. I got crushed... under a piano."

"Wait..." Matt says, "So you're... dead?"

"We all are." a boy shrugs.

"You are, too." a girl points out.

"What?" Matt exclaims. Was this a prank? Then again, why would these strangers prank him?

Suddenly, a brunette in a 1950s dress steps forward. "It's a curse at this school that every fifth year, a student dies. Or, well, _someone_ in the school dies." She looks at Mr. Schue. "But besides him, there's only been students."

"I've heard that." Matt says, "But I didn't really believe it. I thought it was just something they told freshmen to scare them."

Several of the kids in front of him start to nod in agreement and snicker a bit. "I thought so too." a boy says, "Then I died."

"They did tell us what places were haunted." Matt says, "And there were a lot of places. The cafeteria, the bleachers, both guys and girls restrooms aswell as the locker rooms, the parking lot... and yeah, the choir room which I don't even think the janitors go into. Honestly, it's kind of unbeliveable."

"Oh, we know." a girl who also looks like she's from the 70s says. "But buckle up, because we're gonna tell you a story. Should we present ourselves in order?"

The girl in the 50s dress does a pose. "Rachel Berry, 1955. I loved to sing and perform. I couldn't help myself to sing a tune wherever I went. Sure, my classmates probably thought I was a bit annoying, but I did not care. One day, I was eating lunch in the cafeteria and took a bite of an apple. That apple bite was my doom... I couldn't breathe, you see! And my classmates, they all saw me... did nothing! Nothing at all! They believed I was just showing them a new performance. Even when I fainted, none of them did anything... and then I woke up in this room. I usually roam around the cafeteria... i've heard children talk about how their big siblings, parents, probably now even grandparents, saw a girl choke to death there and did nothing."

"Then in 1960, I joined the club." a boy in a wheelchair says. "My name is Artie Abrams. As you can see, i'm in this chair. That's just how it is... except that it makes me stick out. A lot. Nowadays, there are lot of wheelchair friendly spaces all around school... that wasn't the case when I lived. Everyone saw me as a less valuable human. Some boys decided to make my day worse every day. They would grab my wheelchair and push me away so I would crash into the wall. They would shake it, trying to make me fall off. One day... they just pushed me off. In the middle of the parking lot. They thought it was hilarious how I was struggling to crawl back up to my chair. And then... the car came. It drove fast towards me. I was about to get back up to my wheelchair when... I slipped. The driver couldn't see me, as I was _just_ out of his sight... Next thing I know, I woke up here."

"My story is not any less pleasant." says a black girl. "My name is Mercedes Jones and I was a student here in 1965. I think I was the only black girl in the entire school that year. I remember they were holding auditions for a musical my music teacher had created. I surprised all my classmates there - the teacher told me she had never heard someone sing such high notes. I got the part and I was so happy! Then... it was opening night. I had just finished singing and I was enjoying the roar of the crowd. Then, backstage, some kids were staring at me. I didn't think much of it until one of them grabbed me and pushed me into the wall. They called me... some slurs that I'd rather not repeat, but you can probably imagine."  
Matt nods sadly. Mercedes continues. "Then they started to kick me and hit me... they told me someone like me shouldn't be allowed to stand in the spotlight. I... got out of there, but they had hit me pretty bad. I could barely see anything and I was on the way of fainting. Then... I tripped down the stairs and... i've been here ever since."

"The year 1970, it was my turn." the girl who looks like she's a catholic schoolgirl says. "I'm Quinn Fabray and I used to have a boyfriend who I loved very much. That is, until he asked me if we could... be intimate. I said no. My family was very conservative, I was the president of the celibacy club and... I just wasn't ready for that. When I told him no, he got mad and didn't speak with me for the rest of the day. The next day, I found out that he had spread rumours about me. He had told the entire school all kinds of things. That I was fooling around, cheating, that I was a real skank... and they believed him. No one believed _me_. It got to the point where my parents found out and they yelled at me... and I told them it wasn't true, but I could just tell they weren't believing me either. So... I went to school that day and wrote a letter that I left on the restroom floor where I called out my now ex boyfriend and everyone who believed his lies. Then I just sat myself down there on the dirty floor and gave a final glance at the sleeping pills I had in my hand... to this day I tend to visit the restrooms and observe if the world has become any better. It has not."

"My name is Brittany Pierce and in 1975 I jumped off the school roof." says the other girl who looked like she was from the 70s. "I didn't know this at the time, but people were mocking me behind my back. They called me stupid. They bet that I was so stupid that I would jump off the roof. So they came to me, some kids. They told me that they wanted to make an experience. They wanted to see if a human jumped off the roof and spread their arms out, they would fly like a bird. I said sure. I wanted to see if I could fly... the last thing I saw before I woke up here was their grinning faces as they had tricked me... I don't think they were expecting me to die, because honestly they weren't that smart. And jokes on them, because I _can_ fly now."  
She demonstrates this by suddenly showing everyone she floats in the air. "It's ghost powers. Also I can go through walls."

An asian boy wearing some pretty rad clothes steps forward. "I'm Mike Chang. I was a student in 1980. I always loved dancing. So much in fact that it became my deadly fate. There was a talent show and I had signed up. I had practised a new dance number that was very tricky. If you don't do it right, you could break a bone... or worse. As you'd imagine, that's what happened. I was on stage, performing. Everything went smoothly. The crowd was impressed. Now, there was a part where I was gonna do a flip and dance on my hands. I had practised it before, though never on the actual stage. I was so used to practising in smaller spaces, so I had adjusted my number to that. But now I realised how big the stage was, and I could surely do a bigger flip! Well... I just timed it all a bit wrong, because my head reached the ground before my hands... crack. It was pure unfortune. My neck just... I don't even know. I'm here now."

"I'm Kurt." a boy with a slightly high pitched voice says. "Kurt Hummel. I was was a young homosexual boy in 1985, and as you can imagine, people did not like that. I was often pushed into the lockers and mocked just for existing. After a while I just rolled my eyes at them, I knew that I was gonna blow this town after graduation anyways. Then one day, a boy just took my jacket and ran away with it. I ran after, into the boys locker room. Immediately, the boys in there started to comment on how the ladies locker room was on the other side and how they felt uncomfortable with me in there because I was gonna look at them naked. I actually got mad now. In pure anger I told them that I was not interested in seeing any of their naked bodies because they already had ugly faces. Huge mistake... the next thing I know, they were pushing me to the ground and started to toss me back and forth from wall to wall. They kicked me and hit me everywhere. And they didn't stop. They just continued to beat me up as they yelled words I couldn't even hear because of all the ringing in my head. It hurt so much. But I was too weak at that point to do anything. So I just took it. I just closed my eyes and waited for it to be over... it wasn't over until I got here."

"I'm Santana Lopez and just like Kurt, i'm a homosexual." a latina girl says, tossing her ponytail back and forth. "A lesbian in 1990 was not exactly very welcomed by the society either. I tried to lay low about it, because I knew how homophobic people are in this school. In this entire town. Then... I don't know how, some motherfucker just... assumed I was a lesbian and told people. At first, I acted like nothing. I treated it like some joke. I just ignored the ones who picked on me for it. Then, one day, some girls asked me to stay behind after class. They wanted to talk to me. I remember even the teacher being confused to have to leave the classroom. Anyways, I noticed they were locking the door behind them, which made me a bit suspicious. Then, they basically cornered me and told me they found me disgusting and felt uncomfortable being around me, that kind of bullshit. I just rolled my eyes at them and tried to leave... but they wouldn't let me! They forced me to stay there while they were spitting bullshit. So eventually I replied with my fist. As I started to punch a girl in the face, the others were calling me a freak for attacking. So I attacked them, too... but one of the girls was stronger than me. She pushed me up to the wall. At this point I actually felt a bit more threatened. She just had this tight grip around my arms that made me want to fear for my life. They were all mad at me now, I mean, I would be pretty pissed too if someone punched me. I don't regret doing it, but in that moment I was scared and I wanted to get out of there. The door was locked, so I acted on impulse. I opened the window behind me and jumped out. Just so I could get out of there... except that we were on the third floor and I jumped out head first... so yeah."

"Noah Puckerman, 1995, you can call me Puck." says a boy with a mohawk. "I was an angry man. Used to beat people up just because I could. I also sometimes went to parties on the weekends just because I was bored of life. So one monday, I had a huge hangover. But I still had to go to school, because no one knew I had a hangover and also my teachers had threatened to fail me if I didn't show up. So, I got into my car... and I was so tired I almost couldn't keep an eye on the road. Long story short, I got to school but I didn't stop my car. I'm the reason they had to rebuild all the classrooms on the east side of school... I will never forget that teachers shocking face."

"Uh, I'm Tina Cohen-Chang." says a girl who also appears to be of an asian ethnicity aswell as wearing punky clothes Matt recogonized kids wearing in the early 00s. "The year was 2000 and I was lonely. I honestly just wanted to disappear from the earth. People were not awful, but they weren't really nice either. I kinda pushed people away, because I didn't want to bother them. I just had a lot of anxiety and bottled up emotions... I don't want to talk about it too much, I still feel a bit of pain towards it. But all I can say is that I jumped into the swimteam's pool and I didn't get up again..."

"Finally, there's me!" the last boy in the group says. "I'm Finn Hudson. You can probably guess that I died in 2005, heh... well, I died just because I was clumsy. When I heard people talk about it, they said it was because I put on my football gear wrong so I twisted my neck. But no... I literally slipped. In the shower. The floor was slippery and also very hard so I slipped and hit my head very, _very_ wrong. I slip as a ghost a lot too, but atleast I don't hurt myself now."

* * *

Matt is shocked. He doesn't know what to say. Some of these death causes were so sad and dark... he can't believe the world is so cruel.

"I'm so sorry." he says. He does not know what to say more, so he just sighs and looks down at the floor.

"We're sorry for you, too." Quinn explains.

"Yeah, dude." Finn adds, "They crushed you at that game. Literally. That's so cruel."

Matt sighs. "Well, compared to some of you-"

"Hush, hush!" Santana exclaims. "You're valid."

"You're one of us now." Artie says.

"And good is that!" Mr. Schue exclaims. He seems very happy. "Now, Matt, since you are the twelfth student to enter this void of non-existence, I am happy to announce that we have enough members to count as an actual show choir!"

Everyone cheers. Matt frowns. "But... I don't know if I like to sing."

"Been there, dude." Puck chuckles. "But I don't know, after 15 years it has kind of grown on me."

"We don't sing and dance all the time." Tina informs him. "We do a lot of other stuff."

"Like what?"

The ghosts took his hand and he realises he can float. They all can. Ghost powers, as Brittany says. They then drag him out of the choir room, leaving Mr. Schue there alone. He prefers to stay there a lot, they tell Matt. As they drag him all around the school, they talk.

"There's always these students and faculty members that's fun to observe." Rachel says. "You watch them grow and change. You're like... an audience and the school is your cinema screen."

"I enjoy observing how technology changes." Artie snickers, "You know, i've been here for so long now and yet I have always been the target demographic for every new trendy thing. Matt, you gotta teach me about those iphones."

"I love seeing all the new books that come into the library." Mercedes says. "The world gets more and more progressive, while at the same time it's not, and it's just fun to see how new authors basically write the same things authors when I lived wrote. I'm both laughing and also feel bummed that we don't learn from history sometimes."

"Sometimes I have sex in the vents." Brittany shrugs. "And basically everywhere else. It's fun to be a ghost in that sense. You can have lots of sex and you won't get pregnant or get any STDs, because we're all just warm energy spirits."

"Remember when we did it in the middle of a classroom?" Santana giggles, "You and me, Britt? I think it was... sometime in the end of the 90s."

"Yeah, they had a math test and we just went wild on the teachers desk!"

"I remember that!" Mike exclaims, "I mean- I didn't see you do it, but I remember the students saying they felt a strange energy from the classroom."

"You can also just... be friends with people." Kurt says, "Sure, we're teenage ghosts and we have a lot of feelings we want to get out, which has lead to some fun surprises..." he glances at Quinn and Rachel, "But you can also have friends. Friends to bond with, to pull pranks on, to pull pranks _with_ , to sing and dance with..."

"And everyone supports you." Tina adds. "We're always here to comfort you, because, well... dying is a pretty traumatic experince."

"We're all excited to get to know you!" Quinn chuckles. "Though, you don't have to open up to us right away. I know all of this is probably... _pretty_ overwhelming. You just take your time."

"And you have all the time in the world." Santana adds. "Being a ghost has atleast made me lose sense of time and space, so I can just think about something and it has suddenly passed two months without me knowing."

"Also, you'll love Mr. Schue's show choir lessons." Puck says. "We're really like a family there. You'll want to stay there for an eternity. Which is good, because... well."

"Thanks." Matt replies to everyone. He doesn't know what he thanks them for. But he just feels like that's what he can say. Honestly, Matt has never been very good at speaking, he mostly just listens. Suddenly, Finn puts a hand on his shoulder.

"We argue, too. We argue and we're angry and sad at each other. But in the mix of that there is so much care and happiness and love. Just like real high school."

"Yeah." Brittany says. "And like real high school, it's a mess. But it's also the best years of your life... or... well, it wasn't for us because we died, but like... eh, how do I explain this?"

"I get what you're trying to say." Matt snickers. "I will admit this is gonna be difficult to adjust to, but..." He shrugs. "...I am excited to get to know you guys."

They all smile sadly and then join for a big group hug. Even if Matt didn't know these people very well yet, he did feel comforted.

**Author's Note:**

> This started as me going "Imagine glee but they are all ghosts roaming around Mckinley" and then I thought I needed a backstory to how everyone was a ghost, and then it became this. I don't know how good or bad it is. It's my first ever fic rated M, so that's a bit exciting and also terrifying.   
> I hope you like it? I don't know if I will ever write a sequel or anything. If I do, then that sequel would probably be more happy and quirky than this, and probably rated T. And it would include more New Directions characters and probably not a mysterious curse that someone dies every fifth year (which, by the way, Mr. Schue totally caused that curse. I was originally gonna make him go "hooray, I have 12 members now, I can move on!" and then just leave the students there. But I decided not to in the end).


End file.
